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December 10, 2010

Various family demands mean more time off the mountain than usual, of late. That, along with the fact that I’m STILL coughing a full three weeks after getting sick, have resulted in a very boring time for Lilly. She adjusts to fetch-only or cuddle-only days, but clearly Lilly needs more.

So, imagine how much laughing ensued, when Tom announced that he and Lilly “did a little agility” the other day while I was gone.

“You should have seen her,” he boasted. “She was fast!”

He also marveled at how well Lilly changed directions when asked. I’m fairly certain he didn’t use the correct verbal cue or body language for that (HERE), but there you go.

The next day, Tom wanted to show off their teamwork and handling skills. I watched from inside, out of the wind and cold, as they ran a few loops through our small at-home agility course.

It was super sweet to watch the two of them romping around. That’s a good sign (yes?) that she’ll do agility with him too?

And, yet, I nearly croaked when he kept going after she missed her weave entrances and after she popped out a pole or two early (several times as they looped and looped around).

I could tell you that I was a reasonable wife, that I did not shriek at him, but that would be a lie.

Well, maybe not shriek … but I did point out that letting Lilly make mistakes on course might erode some of our hard work.

It probably doesn’t matter since I’m fairly confident in saying that we will NEVER compete in agility, but I’m a girl who likes her behavior performance criteria on the specific side.

My standard fix:

  • Stop
  • Get Lilly to return to the redo position
  • Ask her to try again
  • Reward the full performance of the task

Green Handler Seeks Experienced Dog

I’ve joked before that I would love to run a really talented dog in agility, just for fun, so that I could see what it feels like at that level.

Perhaps that’s how Tom feels running Lilly on course. After all, he didn’t have to figure out HOW to teach Lilly the various agility tasks. He just gets to reap the benefits and have the fun.

As I’m sure you know, it’s quite empowering to have a dog respond in such a way.

I might have to ask those who visit us over the holidays to try and run Lilly on her course. It would be an interesting experiment to see if she will work for others the way she works for us.

From experience, we know that Lilly will do basic obedience and trick type things for other people (at least in certain settings) because she very often coped well in dog training classes (with Gigi) when we played “Pass the pup.”

Perchance to Herd?

I’m pondering all this because (a new reader/follower Aly’s suggestion on Facebook) we might try Lilly out on sheep sometime soon-ish, and goodness knows she needs to work with someone who knows sheep and herding (not me) to give it a try. Aly says her herding trainer is good with soft dogs, so we’ll have to see.

Herding is traditionally taught via “corrections,” and goodness knows Lilly would NOT take well to that at all … which is why I’ve put off any herding attempts for years now.

(Well, that and the fact that herding classes often take place in far flung locations.)

About the Author Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related.

I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

  1. I’ve often thought it would be great fun to introduce Buster to herding. Have you considered Treibball with Lilly? Perhaps private lessons would be a way to get the benefit of herding without the obstacle of having other dogs around (since that’s not one of her favorite things).

  2. I never thought of agility the way you described it here, with your dream of taking a skilled dog through a course, but now I’m thinking that would be really fun, too! My dog failed miserably at agility, being bested by a three-legged dog with neurological problems…seriously! This darn dog can scale a chain link fence, but will he follow a hot dog trail through a little tunnel if I ask him to? No way! Maybe one of my foster dogs will be more appeasing. In the meantime, I’m going to watch out for friends who have skilled agility dogs and see if they’ll let me take one “for a spin!”

  3. Running someone else’s experienced agility dog is a TON of fun!! I ran my friend’s Golden Retriever, who is about 2 years more experienced than Marge, at a recent trial, and it felt REALLY cool.

    Hey, if you’re ever in the area, you’re more than welcome to come down and try Marge out. As long as you’ve got meatballs handy, she’ll work her heart out for you!

  4. You have posed an interesting question here. I wonder too now if my dog would work for somebody else. I know she will for my husband, although his training “methods” sound very similar to your husband’s. Ahem.

    But would she perform for a stranger? Or even someone she only knows a little bit? Not sure but it would be a lot of fun to watch, even if I had to hold myself back from correcting the person.

    As a green handler who has had the chance to run a course with an experienced dog, I can say this with full honesty. It really isn’t the dog screwing up out there. It’s me.

  5. I agree with Dog-geek! One of the big things is if a dog does have herding drive..there is no greater reward than working with the sheep. They want to do it sooooo badly that they often will do anything for the opportunity. If Lilly does have the drive, you will see a completely different dog than you are used to. My dog is normally pretty soft, but you stick her on sheep and watch.out! She will do anything in the world, including ignoring thunderstorms (her biggest fear) to work the sheep. It’s so cool to watch their instinct come out! You have to realize herding isnt so much about obeying commands as it is controlling instinct.

  6. I’m excited that you are going to give herding a try! I don’t know that I would agree that it is taught via corrections, though – I would say that it is taught by pressure and space usage. (Granted, some trainers are more aggressive with their use of pressure than others.) And while I would love to see more people use more traditional positive reinforcement, most herding trainers will tell you that they ARE using positive reinforcement in the form of the dog getting to continue working the sheep. One thing I would suggest watching out for with Lilly, though, is that at nearly every place we have gone herding, people think nothing about having loose dogs around – most trianers I have gone to will have at least one of their own dogs out for switching out sheep, plus most people around here have a livestock guardian dog or two roaming around, and some places I have been to have had numerous excited BCs running up and down the fenceline in the adjacent field to where we have been working – nice for keeping sheep off the fence, but a disaster for a dog like B.

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